Aa history Lovers 2004 moderators Nancy Olson and Glenn F. Chesnut page

in number, and had nobody of experience or tradition to guide us. People

would just go to another meeting if this occurred now. We were willing to

accept sobriety as evidence of the wisdom and the right to the authority

of the founder or old-timer. We now know that sobriety does not mean that

the alcoholic has learned how to control the ego and is now qualified as a

trusted servant of A.A.

In 1950, I attended the first International A.A. Convention in Cleveland.

This was a wonderful thing and a wonderful time. Everyone was excited

about everything - especially getting to see and hear Bill and Dr. Bob. I

was deeply affected by what was obviously Dr. Bob's last talk. I was

scheduled to speak at the Chicago open meeting the next week, so I

attempted to enhance my prestige by being the messenger to bring back the

co-founder's last words. I misquoted him as saying, "Keep It Simple!" I

completely missed what he was actually saying about "Love and Service." I

sincerely and deeply regret this. There is no solace in the fact that many

others did the same thing. The slogan, "Keep It Simple" has become a

permanent A.A. cop-out. But Dr. Bob did not say it.

What he did say was, "There are two or three things that flashed into my

mind on which it would be fitting to lay a little emphasis. One is the

simplicity of our Program. Let's not louse it all up with Freudian

complexes and things that are interesting to the scientific mind, but have

very little to do with our actual A.A. work. Our Twelve Steps, when

simmered down to the last, resolve themselves into the words 'Love and

'Service.' We understand what love is, and we understand what service is.

So let's bear those two things in mind."

On Sunday morning the Spiritual Meeting was held. I was excited by the

prospect that I was going to rub elbows with the real heavy hitters in the

God department. I do not remember the name of the main speaker but his

topic dealt with the idea that the alcoholic was to be the instrument that

God would use to regenerate and save the world. He expounded on the idea

that alcoholics were God's Chosen People and was starting to talk about

'The Third Covenant," when he was interrupted by shouted objections from

the back of the room.

The objector, who turned out to be a small Catholic priest, would not be

hushed up. There was chaos and embarrassment as the meeting was adjourned.

I was upset and was in full sympathy with the poor speaker. I did not

realize it at the time, but I had seen Father Pfau in action and Father

Pfau was right. I had heard the Group Conscience and I rejected it. The

format for an A.A. meeting was much simpler than it is now.

Most of the meetings were in homes. The host conducted the meeting, and

opened the meeting with a quiet time. Then the topic was introduced

(usually a Step), it was discussed and the meeting was closed with the

Lord's Prayer. There were no introductory readings and no identification

(My name is Jack S. and I am an alcoholic) whenever you spoke. If you had

the meeting, you were expected to have a prepared topic. You did not ask,

"does anyone have a problem?" hoping to fluff off the fat that you did not

prepare-anything. The quality of the program worked by those who were

really trying was about the same as it is now. But we had some extra

things going for us. In the early days we were closer to the source. I was

fortunate enough to be able to talk to the two people who had actually had

a spiritual "experience." I think that hearing a second-hand

account of Bill's experience in Towns Hospital was a turning point in my

life. This was told to me by a close friend and sponsoree of Bill's who

had finally had an experience of his own. This kind of contact was

available to me. I was able to talk to Bill on the telephone for over an

hour. I went on one of Father Pfau's retreats. It was a time of great

opportunity. There was a special feeling in being part of something

important that was happening. A.A. was beginning its rapid growth and one

had the feeling of the Power that was behind the whole thing.

Our attitudes about the program were different and this was due to several

causes. We did not know just how the program would work for people who

were not sure they were alcoholic. It was often suggested to a prospect

that they do more drinking, to be sure that they were ready. The prospects

were lower bottom than they are now. They were handled differently,

Twelfth Step calls were to tell your stories, to explain the A.A. program,

give the prospect a chance to back out and finally to make a commitment. A

prospect who regarded their situation as a temporary embarrassment or that

they were the innocent victim of circumstance was discouraged. I think

that there is a difference in how many are really trying.

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++++Message 1886. . . . . . . . . . . . History of AA in Chicago

From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/24/2004 11:17:00 AM

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The following was written in 1949 by Luke H., who later served Chicago as

the elected Panel I Delegate to the 1951 General Service Conference.

A. A. in Chicago is a direct descendant of the original group in Akron. The

Chicago Group probably ranks fifth in among the larger groups, the earlier

ones being Akron, New York, Cleveland and Detroit. Since there are no

records to refer to, our place in line may be challenged by some group in

the northern Ohio seedbed, of whose history we are not aware of.

Nevertheless, Chicago was among the early strongholds of the movement. A

former resident of Akron, then living in Evanston, brought it from the

fountainhead in the summer of 1937, which may legitimately be regarded as

the birth date of A.A. in Chicago, although the first group meeting was then

two years in the future. Why did two years have to go by before a group was

formed? Looking back, Lonesome No. 1 realizes now that he was being taught

an important lesson in A.A. His idea was that a group would spring up at

once, as it had in Akron, but in spite of his best efforts at Twelfth Step

work, nothing happened. "I went back to Dr. Bob in Akron and asked him what

it was I was doing wrong or what I was failing to do. I went back more than

once, and each time he told me the same thing: 'When the time is ripe for a

group in Chicago, you'll have one.' That's the way it turned out. By

September 1939 there were five A.A.s in Chicago, four of whom had sobered up

and been indoctrinated in Akron, and the first meeting was held. All six

brand new A.A.s and three nonalcoholic spouses gathered at the home of No.1

on a Tuesday night in September. One of the first matters discussed was the

obligation to make A.A. available to all in the Chicago area, which meant

first establishing a meeting place in the Loop. This historic spot, A.A.'s

first home, was the top of two floors of the Medical and Dental Arts

Building at Lake and Wabash. The first meeting there was held on a Tuesday

night in October 1939. As a bonus for our mass patronage of the 65 cents

table d'hote on the topside, we were granted the freedom of the lounge on

the floor below. It was convenient and congenial and much good was

accomplished there. We gained our first 110 members at Lake and Wabash and

held our first New Year's Eve party, with a complete A.A. orchestra for

dancing on the restaurant floor. Tuesday night was established as the main

meeting night. The feeling that A.A. was an affair for the whole family was

fostered from the start, and the practice of inviting nonalcoholic wives and

husbands was founded. The system of Thursday group meetings, open only to

A.A.s, got its start during this period. Also started at this time was a

simple form of set-up committee that handled the few administrative details.

This has since developed into the rotating committee, with its appended

policy, public relations, finance, and program committees. The programs were

simple. Members took turns leading the meetings, and in early months a new

man was likely to be called on three weeks after he first showed up.

Following the Akron custom, the leader read a few verses of scripture and

then told his story.

Looking back to those days in the beginning, it is notable that there was

never any deviation from the spiritual essence of the program. At that time,

as now, the program was accepted as a divine gift beyond questioning. Unlike

some other places, Chicago had not suffered from improvements to improve on

its founders. The principle of "Easy Does It" became firmly rooted. As Dr.

Bob had promised No.1, it came to pass that a group was formed in Chicago,

and its subsequent sound growth seems to indicate that it was founded when

the time was ripe. Similarly, all of the branching out, the formation of

committees and other affairs of that sort have taken place when the need to

form them became evident. A.A. in Chicago has revealed its strength of

character by never organizing for the sake of organization and never

promoting any matters that might overshadow the fundamentals of the program.

These things are part of the history of the Chicago Group, and they are

impressive because they came to pass early and in a completely natural

fashion. Occupation of the Medical and Dental Arts Building ended suddenly

after eight months. We made a switch to a $20 private room in the LaSalle

Hotel and it was necessary to pass the hat. Up until then, A.A. got along

without receiving a nickel. The A.A. spirit burned bright that night. Nearly

three times the $20 was collected. Thus, a policy of generous giving came

into being. Later we moved to Madison Street. Then the LaSalle Hotel in the

old Hamilton Club, then a building on Lake and Wabash, and then back again

to the Medical and Dental Arts Building. It was there that the 1940 New

Years Eve party was held with a large assortment of sobered-up piano

players. By the following spring, a brisk rate of growth was evident.

Attendance at meetings ran about 250. The next move in summer, 1945, took us

to the YMCA, where we had the use of the auditorium for a small fee and

where the cafeteria served prime rib for 45cents. At the Y, the style of

program was changed from one or two speakers to a panel. The custom of

inviting comment from the floor died out. Another departure was the

beginners meeting. At first, this was only a pre-meeting conversation

between a sponsor and two of his new patients being helped in one corner of

the auditorium. The next week some other new ones asked to sit in and

listen, and presently a score or more were making it a weekly custom. A.A.

outgrew the YMCA, by the spring of 1944, and we moved to the engineering

building on Wacker Drive, a pleasant chamber with a normal capacity of 800.

We moved in May 1946, to the current meeting place at 32 West Randolph.

Counting all of the stop-offs, it is the eighth meeting place in the group's

history, which will end its first decade next September. In that time,

membership has grown to 4,000. By way of branching out, the city and the

suburban areas served by the Chicago Central Office have 175 neighborhood

groups. Each of them, at its Thursday or Friday night meetings, is more

equal in numbers to the whole group when it moved downtown. These milestones

tell of A.A.'s growth in terms of members, from the beginning to the

present.

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++++Message 1887. . . . . . . . . . . . Publication Listed in 1940 Akron

Manual

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Hi Friends,

Some time ago, Glenn Chesnut sent me information about a 1940 Akron Manual

which listed books helpful for alcoholics. They are:

A Manual for Alcoholics Anonymous: THE AKRON MANUAL, 1940

"The following literature has helped many members of Alcoholics Anonymous

Alcoholics Anonymous (Works Publishing Company).

The Holy Bible.

The Greatest Thing in the World, Henry Drummond.

The Unchanging Friend, a series (Bruce Publishing Co., Milwaukee).

As a Man Thinketh, James Allen.

The Sermon on the Mount, Emmet Fox (Harper Bros.).

The Self You Have to Live With, Winfred Rhoades.

Psychology of Christian Personality, Ernest M. Ligon (Macmillan Co.).

Abundant Living, E. Stanley Jones

The Man Nobody Knows, Bruce Barton."

I have tracked down all of the publications except "The Unchanging Friend,"

a series (Bruce Publishing Co., Milwaukee). Bruce now seems to be out of

business, although there are a couple of smaller publishing firms listed

under that name. They published considerable Catholic-related material and

some of it can still be found in libraries. I'm assuming that "The

Unchanging Friend" may be a series of essays about Jesus, although that's

not certain. Whatever it was, the 1940 AA's in Akron apparently thought it

was helpful for alcoholics.

I have called the librarian at the Catholic Diocese in Toledo and also the

librarian at Lourdes College, a Catholic institution in our area. No luck so

far.

Mel Barger

~~~~~~~~

Mel Barger

melb@accesstoledo.com

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++++Message 1888. . . . . . . . . . . . Joe McQ and Charlie Tapes

From: caseyosh . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/24/2004 5:47:00 PM

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Would appreciate anyone who can provide a brief history of the J

and C tapes on the Big Book... including when they were initially

formulated and first presented privately and/or publicly...

Thanks

KC

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From: jeffyour . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/25/2004 7:53:00 AM

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as quoted on http://rtfrog.tripod.com/Charlie.html

Joe McQ and Charlie P met in 1973 when Joe introduced Charlie as the

AA speaker at an ALAnon convention. Joe had wondered if Charlie P

might be the country singer Charlie Pride. "he wasn't even the right

color," Joe laments.

They instantly discovered their mutual fascinations with AA's basic

textbook, Alcoholics Anonymous commonly called "The Big Book". What

interested them mostly was that The Big Book was written a

particular sequence to convey certain ides. That interest became

close friendship, which has lasted over 20 years.

They would frequently meet to discuss The Big Book, often driving

225 miles to meet in each other's homes. Soon they were planning

meetings in hotel rooms at AA conventions in Oklahoma and Arkansas

and, within a few years, the meetings grew in popularity.

In 1977, some AA members met in a Tulsa, Oklahoma hotel room for a

discussion on The Big Book. One member asked Joe and Charlie to come

to his home group to present a program on The Big Book. A taping of

that presentation was made and called "The Big Book Study". Through

the circulation of these audio tapes throughout the Fellowship, Joe

and Charlie received invitations to present the Study at AA

conventions, roundups and special events. By 1980, there were about

eight studies offered each year.

At the AA International Convention in New Orleans in 1980, Wesley P,

an impassioned AA "Big Booker" from Pompano Beach, Florida,

organized a lunch for 1,500 AA members from all over the world and

gave away 100 Joe & Charlie tape sets as door prizes. Invitations

exploded, and within a couple of years Joe & Charlie were presenting

about 36 seminars a year worldwide.

These seminars struck a deep chord within the AA members ... for the

reaffirmation of "this message" as written April 1939 with the

publication of the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous. Big Book

Studies presented by Joe & Charlie have been given in all 50 states

as well as most Canadian provinces in addition to Australia, New

Zealand, England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden

and Holland. Joe & Charlie have been invited to take the Big Book

Study to Iceland in August of 1998.

The original Joe, Joe McQ, has had to cut back his traveling in

recent years. Oddly enough, another Joe - Joe McC (who was active in

the study group since the beginning) has been able to pick up the

slack. "where God guides, God provides", as some members say.

Joe & Charlie are not paid for their services. In fact, the only

financial compensation they receive are their travel expenses,

meals, and lodging which are paid for by the independent host

committee sponsoring the Big Book Studies. Further, this is in

accordance with the AA Guidelines of Conferences & Conventions

(MG4), published by the General Service Office.

In the past 24 years, an estimated 200,000 members of various 12

step programs have experienced the spiritual benefits of these

collective seminars.

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++++Message 1890. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Joe and Charlie

From: denezmcd@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/25/2004 6:43:00 AM

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In May 1980 I heard the tapes of Joe McQ. & Charlie P. and there were only

two tapes at that time. Later they became 4 tapes, then 6 tapes, then 9

tapes and now there are 12 tapes. It would be interesting to know when all

the tapes were first made.

Thanks for any imput on this.

LOL,

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++++Message 1891. . . . . . . . . . . . A Teen Agers Decision

From: rebosjoey@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/25/2004 9:23:00 AM

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I would like to locate some Imfo. on the lady who wrote a Teen Agers

Decision in the

3rd Edition Big Book, Any tapes email address or anything.

Thank You

Joey in Tulsa rebosjoey@aol.com

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++++Message 1892. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Joe and Charlie

From: Jan Baldwin . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/25/2004 11:04:00 AM

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There is also a book that goes along with these tapes- "A Program For You"

I highly recommend getting it, as it is a complimentary piece of information

to the tapes.

JanB

From: "jeffyour"

To:

Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 7:53 AM

Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Joe and Charlie

> as quoted on http://rtfrog.tripod.com/Charlie.html

>

> Joe McQ and Charlie P met in 1973 when Joe introduced Charlie as the

> might be the country singer Charlie Pride. "he wasn't even the right

> color," Joe laments.

> They instantly discovered their mutual fascinations with AA's basic

> textbook, Alcoholics Anonymous commonly called "The Big Book". What

> interested them mostly was that The Big Book was written a

> particular sequence to convey certain ides. That interest became

> close friendship, which has lasted over 20 years.

>

> They would frequently meet to discuss The Big Book, often driving

> meetings in hotel rooms at AA conventions in Oklahoma and Arkansas

> and, within a few years, the meetings grew in popularity.

>

> In 1977, some AA members met in a Tulsa, Oklahoma hotel room for a

> to his home group to present a program on The Big Book. A taping of

> that presentation was made and called "The Big Book Study". Through

> the circulation of these audio tapes throughout the Fellowship, Joe

> and Charlie received invitations to present the Study at AA

> conventions, roundups and special events. By 1980, there were about

> eight studies offered each year.

>

> At the AA International Convention in New Orleans in 1980, Wesley P,

> organized a lunch for 1,500 AA members from all over the world and

> gave away 100 Joe & Charlie tape sets as door prizes. Invitations

> exploded, and within a couple of years Joe & Charlie were presenting

> about 36 seminars a year worldwide.

>

> These seminars struck a deep chord within the AA members ... for the

> publication of the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous. Big Book

> Studies presented by Joe & Charlie have been given in all 50 states

> as well as most Canadian provinces in addition to Australia, New

> Zealand, England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden

> and Holland. Joe & Charlie have been invited to take the Big Book

> Study to Iceland in August of 1998.

>

> The original Joe, Joe McQ, has had to cut back his traveling in

> the study group since the beginning) has been able to pick up the

> slack. "where God guides, God provides", as some members say.

>

> Joe & Charlie are not paid for their services. In fact, the only

> meals, and lodging which are paid for by the independent host

> committee sponsoring the Big Book Studies. Further, this is in

> accordance with the AA Guidelines of Conferences & Conventions

> (MG4), published by the General Service Office.

>

> In the past 24 years, an estimated 200,000 members of various 12